Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Dad's Birthday Card

My dad has a birthday on Wednesday, he'll be 73! I made this card as he loves to play golf. This is also today's sketch challenge on Paper Wings. The card measures 8" x 5 1/2". I used Just Like Dad WIC paper, navy cardstock, and white premium cardstock. The stamp set is Fore! and the U in the title is from Kinder-Bet and the exclamation mark is an upside-down i from the set. I colored the golfer and golf course with Prismacolor pencils. The 3 golf balls are mounted on pop dots and covered with Crystal Lacquer and they really pop! I wouldn't be surprised if my mom wants to give this card and I'll give him the other card I made using a retired stamp, Old Truck, and paper from the Just Like Dad WIC. It's pretty cool, too!

Don't forget, you only have 1 more day to order the April SOTM and Vintage Set! I'll be posting May's on Thursday (hopefully I'll remember).

The Arizona Folklore Preserve

Last Saturday we took a trip with our church group to Ramsey Canyon just southwest of Sierra Vista, AZ. We visited the Arizona Folklore Preserve and took in a show. Anyway, this house is the house my grandfather (dad's side) built and where my dad grew up. It's known as the Moffett House and the movie "Ruby Jean & Joe", starring Tom Selleck, was filmed. To see more pics click on the "Photo Gallery" on the Folklore's website.
Here is a picture with my folks, husband, and Dolan Ellis. He was one of the original New Christy Minstrels back in the 60's. He is the Arizona Official State Balladeer and writes and sings many great songs! We purchased a couple of his CD's and they are excellent!! Check out his website, it's fascinating! You can purchase his CD's online and I highly recommend his music!

Friday, April 25, 2008

New Specials!!

I just received notice of these specials at 4:30 pm mountain standard time. Great savings! The "Perfect Palette for Pennies" is available May 2 while supplies last and the "Memories" will be available on May 9th. Be sure and contact me for your order! Remember, minimum shipping is $6.95 or 10%, whichever is greater, so you may want to add to your order to make the best of the shipping.

The Angel Company™ Matchbook Kits really measure up to the quality of your memories. Constructed of premium-quality cardstock complete with double-sided printing, the TAC™ Matchbook kits are generously-sized, have easy-to-punch-out pieces, coordinating tags and tabs, and are easily “do-able” in an evening.

In celebration of special photographs waiting to be showcased, we’ve paired our exquisite Pemberley Bay™ Matchbook Kit with the specially-created “True Wealth” Limited E
dition stamp set. Available only for a limited time and as part of this special memory-keeping promotion, this unique stamp set features heartfelt quotes and phrases that will perfectly fit a variety of photographs.

PLUS, completing an entire album in an evening is so rewarding, WE ARE GOING TO INCLUDE OUR ROCKIN’ ROXIE MATCHBOOK KIT FOR FREE!!!

TAC™ Time-Saving Kits and Your Special Memories…A Perfect Match!

PB-08 Pemberley Bay™ Matchbook Kit $28.90
Limited Edition True Wealth Stamp Set
Free Rockin’ Roxie™ Matchbook Kit


*No other special offers or discounts apply.

*Available only May 9 – June 16, 2008.

*The Matchbook Kit promotion is commissionable and counts toward FUNshop™ Totals.

*Price does not reflect shipping/handling and applicable taxes.

*Retail price of True Wealth stamp set is $19.95.

*The True Wealth stamp set will not be available after June 16, 2008.

*The True Wealth stamp set is not available for individual purchase.

Create beautiful projects for less money with the dramatic deductions taken by The Angel Company™ on a premium paper line discontinued from the current catalogue! Refreshingly feminine and romantic, the Bella Flor™ Classic Soar With It Collection™ is the perfect choice to create exquisite spring and Mother’s Day projects.


R-2500 Bella Flor SWIC™ $10.00


Stock up your stash during our spring cleaning and enjoy deep discounts. This promotion begins May 2nd and continues while supplies last.

*The Bella Flor™ Classic Soar With It Collection™ include
s 16, 12 x 12 sheets of beautifully patterned paper (one sheet of each design), one sheet of small cardstock alphabet stickers, one sheet of large alphabet stickers, and one sheet with an assortment of coordinating die-cut cardstock tags and embellishments.

*No other special offers or discounts apply.

*All sales final.


*Available only while supplies last.

*The Bella Flor™ promotion is commissionable and counts toward FUNshop™ totals.

*This special price does not reflect shipping/handling and applicable taxes.

*Full original retail price of Bella Flor™ CSWIC™ is $19.95.

Family time!


The pictures and my text have a tendency to scramble a bit from my posting to the actual blog. Can't get it to look like I see it when I post so just enjoy and hopefully you'll get the idea!

The picture of 3 is Dean's sister Muretta and her husband Del and sister Arlene. These 2 pictures are at the San Xavier mission south of Tucson.
















Here is Del at Boot Hill in Tombstone. We walked all over Boot Hill then took in a Wild West animal show, watched the Gunfight at the OK Corral and had pizza at the Crystal Palace.










The picture of 2 people is me with artist Mark Brown. He was really dressed up and his pencil drawings of celebrities, Indians, and such were amazing! The picture of the little town is of the Gunfight with the Earps & Hickock versus the Clantons. The Clantons are buried at Boot Hill and I do have a picture of their graves. The group picture is of our group (minus me taking the picture) at the Crystal Palace. The guy in the middle and lady directly across from him were not in the group but we all shared a table as the Palace was very full. From left to right there is Dean, my hubby, dad, mom, guy & his wife, sister Arlene, sister Muretta and brother-in-law Del. They left Thursday morning to go back to Portland. It snowed, rained, and hailed there while they were visiting with us and we had beautiful weather with temps in the mid 80's! We sure enjoyed their visit!

Aged Tile Rose Card

I was playing with a technique in the Technique Junkies newsletter for a swap and this turned out pretty good. I folded a brown piece of cardstock to measure the standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". I cut a 3 3/4" x 4 1/4" piece of Birch cardstock and stamped the images from the Rose Garden set in Red Magic and Hint of Pesto VersaMagic inks. The shadow image was inked and stamped on scrap paper before stamping on my cardstock and the main image was inked and stamped directly. I then cut this piece in thirds and each 1/3 was cut as shown. I inked all the edges with Burnt Umber Palette Hybrid ink and adhered on the darker brown cardstock that was cut just a bit larger than the original image. The bliss is from the Sparkle set also stamped in Burnt Umber on the Birch cardstock, edged with the Burnt Umber and layered on the darker brown. I used my 1/4" circle punch and got 2 circles to adhere and I added Crystal Lacquer. I tried to do a close-up (shown below) but it isn't a very clear picture.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Flower Pots

I just couldn't have "naked" flower pots! I stamped these 3 using Staz-On inks and various sets. I think they look pretty cool, now!! I still have 1 to stamp but since it has a plant in it I haven't yet. The basil on the far left below is that pot. And the African Violet is in a black pot so it's spared at this time.
And here are my plants in my kitchen window. My African Violets have not been without blooms since they got put in the window. I do close the blinds on the window on the left because the west sun gets VERY hot and I don't need the extra heat in the house.
And this is Arlene, our almost 19 year old cat. She is named after the Garfield girlfriend. I've had cats named: Garfield, Garfield II, #3, and Odie. Each one was very special. And I have collected Garfield items since the cat first hit the public. I have about 10 boxes of stuff and plan on putting some on E-Bay someday. I've kinda lost interest and haven't kept up the purchasing of the books so my set is no longer complete.

Today I went in early to exercise at Curves and noticed that my battery wasn't charging. I prayed that it would start 2 more times, when I left Curves and again at Safeway, and God was gracious. The pickup started. Then I started home, about 10 miles. I watched that gauge drop. I then prayed, "Oh Lord, get me to Amado". Again He answered that prayer. As I got to our post office the pickup died. Nothing. I called our pastor and he came and rescued me. The alternator was shot. We "jumped" the battery and it got me to his house. He took me home, just 1 more mile, and repaired our Chevy! I do owe him for the new alternator, $121 which I will pay when we get our tax refund the end of the month. I just praise the Lord for helping me get home. I will take pastor and his wife to dinner for the repair. I would normally have called my dad but he took my mom into Tucson for her scheduled MRA so he wasn't available. Seems like our vehicles aren't the happiest here. Last week we had to replace the started in my Buick and last fall we replaced the alternator in the Buick! Seems like my car should almost be new at this point with all the repairs last summer before we moved. But then, it's only got 190,000 miles on it!! Great car and comfortable!

Well, I've got supper made in the crock pot and even made a loaf of bread in the bread machine. Even got a couple loads of laundry done! So, maybe I should play! I'm off to my stamp table! Happy stamping!

"BIG" on Fun!


Please check the left side menu for these 4 new limited-edition stamp sets. They are approximately 1/2 the size of the sets in the catalog and are available for a special price during a limited time! When you click on the flyer it does enlarge but to a HUGE size but you can then read it. Print it out if you want.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

A simple card.

I was playing with a watercolor resist technique for a challenge on a group I belong to and this was my entry. I used watercolor paper and stamped the tree from the Good Timber set in Versamark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I sprayed the piece with Willow Walnut Ink. After it cooled I laid a piece of regular typing paper over this and ironed off the embossing powder. I also distressed the edges with the distresser tool from our cutting tool set. I stamped the text from this set on a scrap piece of white cardstock in Noir Palette Hybrid ink and layered as shown on olive cardstock (with the edges sanded) from the Neutrals Cardstock Stack. I then layered as shown on a scrap of dark green cardstock (shown is not from TAC but my stash and is 1/8" smaller than 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" on both sides). I took my 1/4" circle punch and punched the corners. I layered this on a folded 5 1/2" x 8" white premium cardstock. You can ink the edges of the card before layering the colored cardstock for a more distressed look.

I will probably not post anything next week as Dean has 2 sisters and a brother-in-law from the Portland, OR area coming to visit! They will be here sometime Friday evening and leaving the following Friday. They haven't said anything yet about where they want to go but I'm betting we'll go to Nogales, Mexico. Hopefully I'll have some pics to post of our time together after they leave. I hope to get another project posted before they arrive but I do have lots of cleaning and baking to get done. I still haven't finished painting our storage shed due to wind. The temp is supposed to get back up to the low 90's today so I'm sure our a/c will be kicking on early afternoon. So, I guess I better go get some lunch and get off my 'puter! Happy stamping!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Sketch ideas

This card was made because an uncle of mine is in the hospital and not expected to make it. He is 90 years old. I've made another sympathy card for my mom to give his family. Check out a couple of new cards on my stampingcarol.com site. The link is in the left column or do a highlight, copy, and paste. This card uses Sands of Time SWIC and the Forget Not set. I stamped the trees on the ivory cardstock and again on different patterns in the Sands of Time pack. I cut out the trees and used a black marker to edge the trees before attaching them over the images on the ivory cardstock. The text is from a retired set called Rose Sympathy but you can use a text stamp from the With Sympathy set. The ribbon is from a package that we no longer carry but use any sheer 1/4" ribbon that coordinates with the paper you choose to use. I seen this layout on PaperWings, the link is in the left hand menu.

Here are 8 different sketch ideas for cards. I hope to give each of these a try this week. Anyone with me? Send me an email with the card attached and I'll add it to my blog with your name. Challenge ends May 1.

Mom gave me a paper about One Day At A Time:
The most useless thing to do..............................................Worry
The greatest Joy.................................................................Giving
The greatest Loss..........................................Loss of self-respect
The most satisfying work.....................................Helping others
The ugliest personality................................................Selfishness
The most endangered species.......................Dedicated Leaders
The greatest "shot in the arm"..........................Encouragement
The greatest problem to overcome......................................Fear
The most effective sleeping pill............................Peace of Mind
The most crippling failure disease..................................Excuses
The most powerful force in life.............................................Love
The most dangerous pariah..........................................A gossiper
The World's most incredible computer.....................The brain!
The worst thing to be without.............................................Hope
The deadliest weapon................................................The tongue
The two most power-filled words.......................................I can
The greatest asset................................................................Faith
The most worthless emotion........................................Self-pity
The most prized possession.........................................Integrity
The most beautiful attire...............................................A smile!
The most powerful channel of communication.............Prayer
The most contagious spirit........................................Enthusiasm
The most important thing in life.........................................GOD

Also today is my SBC (Sister By Choice) Sandi's birthday!!!! Hey, girlfriend, your card is in the mail!!! I hope she has a wonderful day today and I miss her very much (she's back in Lusk, WY where we moved from to come here).

Well, I have my last class today and 11 ladies signed up! Since so many are snowbirds and many have already left to go north, I am amazed I have this many. Today I am teaching 3 techniques: Smoosh N Rub, Tissue Paper Dyed backgrounds, and Spotlight Stamping. Also will be showing how to index and mount our stamps. So, I better get stuff loaded and go get dressed!

Happy Stamping!

Friday, April 4, 2008

A couple of projects.

I did some playing this week and made this Note Pad holder. The instructions are on The Angel Company's site but not available to you unless you are an "Angel". Bummer. But, I used a 4" x 4" coaster and covered it with Amelia cardstock. I punched the 2 holes with my Crop-a-Dile and used Amelia eyelets and ribbon. When purchasing 3" x 3" post-it notes, be careful. Mine were not glued at the top but attached on opposite ends on every other sheet. I had to add a layer of glue on the "top" and hold together until dry then repeat. Worked fine then. A cousin purchased this from me so I guess I better get some more made!
This golf tee holder is posted on Scor-Pal's site under the April/May projects. It was created by "angel" Rita Kegg and is called "Tees For U 2". My sample here is way off color. The background paper is supposed to be olive green but looks more teal. I used Cha-Cha paper and cardstock collection. I used my Scor-Pal to score the paper at the designated locations.
I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch the holes and stamped the golf ball and text from the Fore! set with Palette Hybrid Noir ink. I also used the U from the Kinder Bet set. For the notch I used the Basic Grey Notch & Dye Cutting tool but we no longer carry it. You can use Velcro sticky dots to hold this closed. Please check this out at the Scor-Pal site! You'll find a lot of projects. Angel Heather Scott has some projects listed! Both ladies are very sweet (and so very creative!).

Guess I better go get cleaned up and head over to my folks' place. They're grilling some T-Bones and I am bringing Banana Bars for dessert. Catch you all later!

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Big On Fun!

These special Limited Edition sets are available April 7 - May 5! The are about 1/2 the size of the regular sets. They are $2.95 each with a qualifying order of $30. Buy 1 or all 4 (but no more than 1 of each)! Tax and shipping are not included. All sets have a retail value of $5.95 so this is a great deal! Hostesses of FUNshops get 1 FREE with every $100 in net totals. Now, how can you pass this up??

"You Make My Day" Award


I received this award from my good friend, Barb Limone, whose blog got me started and whose creativity inspires me. What an awesome blessing! I met her for the first time at the Mile High Angel Gathering in Castle Rock, CO in 2006. She was my roommate along with Diane Short of WY and we had such a great time together!

There are 5 rules attached to this:
1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) To show these rules.
The five blogs I have selected are:
Trudy Osborn
Deb Grady
Annie
Angela K.
Diana Maldonado

This was a tough choice as my absolute favorites already had this award. These gals listed here were selected after searching through a lot of blogs and theirs had some great creativity and regular postings. Please check them out!